Live As You Like But Renounce Internally

Reality is without attributes: it is not color, it is not music, it is not yellow or black, etc. What you see is only the qualified consciousness just as you see that bangles or armlets are both made out of gold. [...] You must stop insisting that good alone should happen to this body. You have become the gross body because only one body is the object of your concept. Because we categorize all objects, there is the ego. You perceive the wife as wife, the son as son, the horse as horse and the dog as dog. They are all just Reality. 

Reality is One and only One, without any duality. Reality is only One, besides It, nothing else exists. Then why does It appear as a universe? There is only gold in various ornaments, nothing else. Later on, they are named as bracelets, bangles and necklaces, but their base is just gold and nothing else. 

Reality is forever shining but it is swallowed by the "I". Ego is not Reality, but appears as such. Everything is consciousness. It is not necessary to say, "I am Reality." Birth and death belong to this "I". The five elements, as well as consciousness, are just as they are, but the subtle body which calls itself "I" and which is full of desire eventually succumbs to death. When someone tells us, "Wamanrao has passed away", it means the name is dead. He came therefore he died. Eradicate from your mind that you are some particular "I". That is the sign of "knowledge". He who says, "I am the one who experiences" is swallowed by demons and still remains within the illusion.

It is the hand that lifts, but you say "I lift". The eyes see but you say, "I see". The nose smells, but you say, "I smell". All this is the power of the Self and yet you say, "I did it". That power belongs to God. Who is this ego arrogating "I"? (It) has no place in the palace, but once admitted inside, (it) overrules the king and affirms (its) own existence. But after some enquiry, this ego's existence is easily disproved. Then the king once again affirms, "I am Reality." There is one thing about this condition – there is bliss. If there are two, then there is pain. Where there is One, there is bliss.

An aspirant invariably faces the question, "Shall we continue to run our household or shall we leave it altogether?" Whether one runs a household or leaves it, it accounts to nothing. There is no sense in wearing a holy basil leaf garland around the neck and yet having a rush of anger in the heart. If one is not attentive to one's inner Self, what is the use of the saffron colored robe? The trees, tigers, beasts and birds do not run a household, but does this mean that they have become saints? What is the use if one is not attentive to one's inner Self? One should be alert. The objective knowledge should prove to be untrue. All the affairs we are conducting in the world should prove themselves to be untrue and that which has been taken as untrue should be experienced as Truth.

What is the use if one is not detached internally? The attitude must change. To know that all this [moving manifest mundane existence] is false is an act of great bravery. One should be detached within oneself.  Live as you like but renounce internally.

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Siddharameshwar Maharaj is a relatively unknown saint of the 19th century. Some his disciples, like Nisargadatta Maharaj, spread his teachings more widely. Adapted from his excerpts here.